Powercolor HD6950 PCS++ 2GB Review – dual action

Recently we have changed our method of measuring noise levels. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. We are using a heatpipe based passive power supply and an Intel SSD to keep noise levels to a minimum. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests. Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.

Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Both modes have an idle fan speed setting of 15%, with both fans hardly spinning at all. Under load this rises to around 28% when in full performance mode, and 2% less when set to the HD6950 hardware configuration.

In reality, this card is very quiet and is only really audible when pushed with Furmark for over 5 minutes at a time.